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Reprinted from The Philadelphia Medical Journal, May 2, 1903 



A STUDY OF THE BRAIN=WEIGHTS OF MEN 
NOTABLE IN THE PROFESSIONS, ARTS AND 
SCIENCES. 

By EDWARD ANTHONY SPITZKA, M. D., 

it 

of New York. 
Fellow in Anatomy, Columbia University, 

That the very slow accumulation of brain-weights 
of distinguished men, or of successful members of 
the liberal professions, has contributed to the exist- 
ing diversities of opinion concerning the significance 
of the weight of the brain in its relations to the in- 
telligence is clear to anyone familiar with recent 
essays on the subject. Particularly disconcerting 
to some writers has been the not infrequent occur- 
rence of unusually heavy brains in idiotic persons, 
while certain low brain-weights of men ranking high 
in intelligence have prompted not a few anatomists 
and anthropologists — not content to defer judgment 
until a sufficient number of data had been collected 
— to make the flat assertion that the weight of the 
brain is absolutely unrelated to the psychical facul- 
ties.* 

It were indeed strange if we had thus to over- 
throw the general principles governing the func- 
tions of the brain as an apparatus of thought. Aside 
from the well-established proofs of the interdepend- 
ence of brain-size and intelligence in the animal 
series, there exist the very convincing craniological 
studies of Ranke, Manouvrier, Vircrow and many 

*Sernoff says: " The brains of eminent men do not diffrr 

from those of ordinary persons in regard to size, weight or sur- 
face morphology." Ha.nsemann (Ztschr. f. Phys. u. Psych, d. 
Sinnesorg, XX., 1.) likewise denies any interdependence of 
brain-weight and mental capacity and says: "We know that the 
weight of the brain depends least of all upon the ganglion cells 
and nerve fibers, but chiefly upon the mass of the neuroglia, 
and the amount of blood contained in it." The gross error hero- 
in hardly requires exposition; however, see the proof of 
the preponderance in weight of the neuraxones in Donaldson's 
"Growth of the Brain." 






^irf 



others, pointing in no uncertain way to a decided 
. relation between the cranial capacities of men and 
their psychical powers. If, as Broca has shown, 
the skulls of modern Parisians are larger than those 
of the seventh century, if the cranial capacity of 
townspeople is, as a rule, greater than that of the 
peasants of the environs (Ranke)*, and if the heads 
of university students have been found to be "on 
the average greatest and growing for the longest 
time in the group of most successful men" 
(Venn),** it would certainly seem that the size of 
the brain assumes, relatively speaking, that signi- 
fincance due this organ of mind quite as much as, 
for example, the large size of the vestibular nerve 
in the cetacea and phocidae relates to their remarka- 
bly skilful equilibristic movements. 

A great number of unusually heavy brain- 
weights found among idiots, imbeciles, criminals, 
insane and other defectives, as well as a number 
among obscure bricklayers, blacksmiths and com- 
mon laborers, are fondly thrust before us to be taken 
in a manner as a refutation of the "unfounded doc- 
trine that the intelligence depends upon the size of 
the brain." Such cases are nearly always explained 
by pathological hypertrophy, either congenitally 
acquired or later developed during disease, and, in 
the case of idiots and imbeciles, invariably charac- 
terized by grave defects in structure, such as ab- 
normal increase of the neuroglia with profound 
diminution of ganglion cells or abnormal gyral 
development, and so on. It were as unfair to in- 
clude such unhealthy brains in a comparative study 
of brain-weights in their relation to the mental 
functions as it would be to assert the large liver in 
a case of hypertrophic cirrhosis to be better able to 
perform its functions than the smaller but healthy 
one. A pathological hypertrophy impairs the func- 

♦Ranke (Beitr. z. Biol., 1882) found the average cranial capacity 
of 100 males of the city population to be 1523 cc. ; (max. 1815, min. 
1288) while among the peasants the average was 1503 cc. (max. 
1260. min. 1780). 

**Venn measured the heads of Cambridge University students 
and found that throughout the entire student period the head 
increased in size. (Nature. 1890.) 



T 



- 3 - 

tions of any organ, but such is not the form of in- 
crease noted in the brains of certain men dis- 
tinguished for mental ability. The proposition here 
dealt with concerns the relation which the weight of 
the brain bears to healthy psychical functionating, 
and this study is based upon the collection and 
analysis of the actual brain-weights of men who in 
their lifetime have become more or less dis- 
tinguished in some branch of the professions, arts 
or sciences, or who have been noted for their ener- 
getic and successful participation in human affairs. 

Before proceeding to this analysis, it must be 
emphasized that the weight of the brain in itself is 
not the all-important factor which still another class 
of writers avers it to be. Aside from the fact that a 
certain volume and weight of brain is absolutely 
essential to mental integrity, the external appear- 
ances of the cerebrum often give the best indication 
of the individual's psychical powers. The recent 
morphological studies of Retzius 1 on the brains of 
the astronomer and mathematician Hugo Gylden, 
the mathematician Sonya Kovalewski, and the 
physicist and pedagogue Siljestrom; of Hansemann 2 
on that of Helmholtz; of Guszman 3 on that of the 
musical composer Rudolf Lenz ; of Duval* on that 
of Gambetta; of Riidinger 5 on those of several scien- 
tists ; and of those on the brains of the two 
physicians Seguin, father and son, G tend to 
show that the index of an individual's promi- 
nent characteristic is to be found in certain 
individual peculiarities in the development of 
one or another cortical region. If the older in- 
vestigators have been disappointed in their search 
for definite areas of differentiation in different 
brains, it has been because there did not yet prevail 
a thorough appreciation of the complex and but re- 
cently understand mechanisms involved in cerebra- 
tion, and because of the small extent of knowledge 
of the cerebral topography. The evidence that has 
been gathered by the above mentioned observers, 
while arguing for territorial differentiation of the 
cortex, has, as a supplement to the anatomical in- 



— 4 — 

vestigations of Flechsig, furnished us with a com- 
prehensive understanding of certain distinctions be- 
tween brains of high and low order. Psychologically 
speaking, perhaps the most important difference be- 
tween the human mind and that of the brute lies in 
the great powers of association possessed by the 
former. To a slighter degree the same differentia- 
tion may be made in comparing human minds with 
each other. When then, to return to the anatomical 
aspect of this theme, in addition to large brain-size 
we likewise have a superior development and ar- 
rangement of the cerebral gyri and of special cor- 
tical fields in particular (Gauss' brain remains the 
best example of this), we see in such a case the 
establishment of a true parallelism between the 
potency and efficacy of every psychical function and 
the size and architecture of the brain. 

The subject of the brain-weight in men of distinc- 
tion has already been treated by other writers, 
notably Wagner, Welcker, Broea, Manouvrier and 
Donaldson. More than a decade has elapsed since 
the appearance of the last of the important and 
original treatises .upon the subject, and the accumu- 
lation of additional data prompts the writer to re- 
view the subject, and to analyse still further the 
material thus collected, in so far as the degree of the 
intelligence may be correlated with the weight of 
the brain. 

The writer has been able to bring together 114 
such brain-weights, of which 96 could be selected as 
available in this analysis.* The mythical figures for 
the brains of Cromwell (2330 gm.), Byron (2238 
and 1807), General Abercrombie (1758) and certain 
others are entirely left out of consideration. In still 
another category have been placed those noted in- 
dividuals who died insane, viz : 

Frank Collier, (circular insanity) 1720 gm. 

Altmann, anatomist (paresis) 7 1460 gm. 

Donnizetti, composer, (paresis)* 1391 gm. 

R. Schumann, composer, (melancholia) 9 1352 gm. 

* Up to the time of reading proof, the writer has received an 
additional brain-weight, that of Prof. Carl v. Kupffer, aged 73. 
Prof. Bollinger found its weight to be 1400 gm. 



— 5 — 

Ludwig II., sovereign (paranoia) 10 1349 gm. 
Smetana, composer, (paresis) 11 1250 gm. 

Others which are dismissed here with the mere 
mention are those of a "Scotch Army Officer, of 
marked intelligence, 12 (1693 gm.) ; "an obscure jour- 
nalist, formerly, a clergyman" 13 , (1588 gm.) ; the 
notorius "Jim" Fisk 14 (1644 gm.) ; E. L. B. 
Curtis, 15 an educated farmer (1348 gm.) ; R. D. 
Milne, 16 "newspaper reporter," (1135 gm.) and that 
of Washington I. Bishop* (1135 gm.) 

Still others omitted from the table are those of 
the physiologists Harless and v Dollinger, and that 
of Gambetta. The first two were not weighed until 
after long immersion in alcohol, and Bischoff 17 at- 
tempted an estimate by adding 41% to this weight, 
obtaining for Harless 1238 gm., and for v. Dollinger 
1207 gm. Gambetta's brain lost much of its weight 
on account of the use of a zinc chloride solution, the 
figure being 1160 gm.; an hour later 10 gm. less. 
Duval's 4 experiments with a similar fluid led him 
to estimate the original weight as 1247 gm. 

The writer has as yet been unable to verify the 
following, and they are, therefore, omitted from the 
table for the present : 

Eduard Lasker, 1300 gm. 

Andrew Combe, 1616 gm. 

Janos Vajda, 1500 gm. 

On the other hand, the writer is not at all per- 
suaded to exclude, as has been urged, the brain- 
weights of Turgeneff ls and Cuvier. 19 . That of the 
former is an extraordinary figure (2012 gm.), but 
it is quoted from a very reliable source and was 
accepted by contemporary authorities, notably such 
careful men as Manouvrier and Topinard. The 
physicians who performed the autopsy, namely : 
Brouardel, Segond, Descout and Magnin, are cer- 
tainly exempt from the charge of carelessness in 

*This individual suffered from hystero-epilepsy, wore himself 
out through imprudent wakefulness and self-prescribed doses 
of antipyrine for nervousness and cephalalgia, and died in a 
"trance," the consequence of cerebral exhaustion. The case 
created a sensation on account of the accusation that Bishop's 
physicians had performed an autopsy upon a living man while 
in a "trance." This was proven to be unfounded, however. 



observation or dishonesty of purpose. The Rus- 
sian poet was a tall man, but not extraordinarly so, 
but his head was large, and the report that there was 
noted a tendency to symmetry of the cerebral gyri 
may have some significance in this connection. As 
for Cuvier's brain, his alleged hydrocephalus, if it 
existed at all, did not in any way impair the magnif- 
icent mental powers of this founder — and most 
productive worker — of the modern natural history. 
His death occurred at the age of 63, with mind un- 
clouded. Cuvier's skull was large, macrocephalic,** 
but who can say from its inspection that it was not 
simply and normally kephalonoid, or whether it was 
thus enlarged by an undue accumulation of fluid. 
The alleged hydrocephalus of Helmholtz 2 seems to 
be based entirely upon the history of slight attacks 
of vertigo*, of very rare recurrence ; attacks which 
he might have had from a multitude of causes other 
than hydrocephalus — of which there were no physic- 
al signs observable in the shape of his head. 
Hansemann's vague reference to a "slight dilatation 
of the ventricles" are best explainable by the two 
apoplectic hemorrhages which terminated Helm- 
holtz's life six weeks after. If the suggested theory 
of Perls and Edinger is to have for its foundation 
cases like these, the arguments in favor of the "ad- 
vantages of a moderate hydrocephalus" (i. e. if fol- 
lowed by a recession) as a means of increasing the 
brain and the intellectual powers are of a very 
problematical nature indeed. 

The actual weight of the brains of each of the in- 
dividuals in the table has doubtless been in- 
fluenced to a varying extent by the conditions and 
causes of death. These variations must, however, 
be disregarded here, except to mention that, as a 
general rule, the figures are rather lower than they 
should be by reason of atrophy from old age, or from 
wasting diseases, or both. In a few cases there is 
ample proof of this diminution of weight, as, for 

** Although Cuvier figures as a French naturalist, he was in 
reality a native of Wuerttemberg, and belonged to the North 
German, not the Celtic, race. 



— 7 — 

example, in that of the phrenologist and anatomist 
Gail/ who died at the age of 70, after a most active 
career, and whose brain had shrunken considerably, 
weighing only 1198 grams. The report of the 
autopsy mentions this atrophy as well as the exis- 
tence of "four or five ounces of fluid." The skull of 
Gall had an internal capacity of 1692 cubic centi- 
meters, from which we may fairly infer (employing 
the law co-efficient of Manouvrier, 0.87) that the 
brain must at one time have weighed fully 1475 
grams or more. Bischoff 17 for a like reason would 
raise Tiedemann's 1254 gm. to 1422 gm., and v. 
Liebig's 1352 gm. to 1450 gm. at least. At the 
autopsy on v. Liebig there was found "considerable 
fluid under the arachnoid," and that "the brain had 
already lost much in its nutrition during the last 
days of life" may be deduced from the fact that it 
lost in weight very rapidly after immersion in alco- 
hol, namely, 34% in the first month and 50% after 
about six years. - Daniel Webster 21 , with a cranial 
capacity of 1995 cc, probably had a brain weighing 
1735 gm., whereas after death it weighed over 200 
gm. less. Spurzheim, 22 with a skull capacity of 1950 
cc, which would indicate a brain-weight of 1695 
gm., had an actual weight of only 1559 gm. The 
brain of v. Pettenkofer 23 , who died at the age of 
82, showed, Dr. Bollinger writes, a mild degree of 
beginning atrophy. The brain of the ethnologist 
and geologist J. W. Powell 24 showed distinct signs 
of atrophy, and those of Whewell, C. Bischoff and 
Fallmerayer are similar examples. That of the Hon. 
B. G. Ferris, 15 an active lawyer and politician who 
lived to b'e 89 years old, is doubtless another in- 
stance of such senile atrophy. 

Aside from these atrophic changes there occur the 
inevitable errors due to variations in the amount of 
fluid and blood contained in the cavities and the 
brain-substance itself, and in the thickness of the 
pia-arachnoid. These recur so frequently in brain- 
weighings that in the absence of special data they 
may be neglected, since relativity of the weights is 
not much impaired. So far as I know, all of the 



brains here tabulated* were weighed with the pia- 
arachnoid. As those of Bischoff's and Marchand's 
tables, used here for comparison, were weighed 
under like conditions, no further allowance need by 
made. 

Other factors known to affect brain-weight, such 
as stature, nationality, body-weight and build, etc., 
cannot well be considered in these cases ; the neces- 
sary data are insufficient for the purposes of a 
critical estimate of these influences. Marshall 25 has 
essayed to do this with the brain-weights of 
Thackeray, Grote, Grant Babbage and DeMorgan. 

In Table i, are tabulated the 96 brain-weights 
which are suitable for the purpose of our analysis. 
No attempt at correction for the various deteriora- 
ting influences above-mentioned has been made, and 
all further discussion is based upon these figures ex- 
clusively. 

TABLE I. 



OCCUPATION 



BRAIN- 
WEIGHT 



Ivan Turgeneff, 
G. Cuvier,i9 . . 

E. H. Knight, 26 
( Theologian ; Prof t 
John Abercrombie " 
Ben Butler. 29 . . . 
Edward Olney, 30 . 
Herman I,evi, sl . 
W. M. Thackerajv 
Rudolf Lenz, 3 . , 
John Goodsir, 33 
Hospa Curtice, 15 
C G. Atherton. 3 * 
W. v. Siemens 2 . 
George Brown, 33 . 
A. Konstantinoff, 63 
R. A. Harrison, 35 

F. B. W. v. Hermann 
J. K. Riebeck 30 . 
Hans Biichner, 31 . 
K. Spurzheim, 22 . 
Edward D. Cope, 3 

G. McKnight, 15 . 
Harrison Allen, 37 
J. Y. Simpson,^ . 
P. Dirichlet, 39 . . 
C A. DeMorny, 40 
Daniel Webster, 23 
Lord John Campbell, 41 
Chauncey Wright, 15 . 



I 

I Poet and novelist 

Naturalist 

Physicist and mechanician, 
in Freiburg University), 27 . . 

Physician 

General and lawyer, .... 

Mathematician, 

Composer, 

Humorist, 

Composer 

Anatomist, 

Mathematician, 

TJ. S. Senator, ....... 

Physicist 

Editor, 

Litterateur 

Chief Justice, Canada, . . . 

Economist and statistician, 

Philologist, 

Hygienist 

Anatomist and phrenologist, 

Palaeontologist, 

Physician and poet, 

Anatomist , 

Physician, 

Mathematician, 

Statesman 

Statesman, 

Lord Chancellor (England), , 

Philosopher, 



65 
63 
59 
42 
61 
74 
59 
60 
52 

53 



2012 
1830 
1814 
1-00 
17. c 6 
1758 
1701 
1690 
1658 
1636 
1629 
1612 
1602 
1600 
1596 
1595 
1590 
1590 
1560 
1560 
1559 
1545 
1545 
1531 
1531 
1520 
1520 
1518 
1517 
1516 



•Coudereau's was weighed both with and without the pla. 



9 — 



M. Schleich, 5 . . . 
Thos. Chalmers, 42 
Garrick Mallery, 24 
Edward C. Seguin, 
Napoleon III, 36 
K. H. Fuchs, 3 ' J . 
I,ouis Agassiz, 43 
C. Giacomini, 44 
DeMorgan, 13 . . 
K. F. Gauss, 3 " . 
Ch. lyetourneau, 45 
J. W. Powell, 24 . 
K. v. Pfeufer, 17 
Wiilfert, 5 .... 
Paul Broca, 46 . . 
G. de Mortillet, 4 . 
I,ord Francis Jeffrey, 48 
1,. Asseline, 49 . . . 
M. D. Skobeleff, 50 
Ch. H. E. Bischoff, 1 
Hugo Gylden, 1 . . 
I<ainarque, 51 . . . 
F. R. v. Kobell, 36 
Mihalkovicz, 52 . . 
H. v. Helmholtz, 2 
Dupuytren, 53 . . . 
P. A. Siljestrom, 1 
Franz Schubert, 2 
A. T. Rice, 54 . . 
J. E Oliver, 1 " . 
Melchior Meyr, 17 
Joseph I^eid}', 37 
Philip I,eidy, 37 . 
George Grote, 25 
Nussbaum, 31 . . 
Joh. Huber, 17 . 
C. Babbage, 23 . . 
Jules Assezat, 55 
A. Bertillon, 56 . 
Fr. Goltz, 57 . . 
Coudereau, 58 . . 
Win. Whewell, 50 
Henry Wilson, 24 
Riidinger, 31 . . 
Szilagyi, 60 .... 
H. T. v. Schmid, 36 

A. A. Hovelacque, 47 
T. I,. W. v. Bischoff, 36 
K. F. Hermann, 39 . 
Justus v. I,iebig, 17 , 
v. Schagintweit, 36 . 

J. P. Fallmerayer, 17 . 
John Hughes Bennett 
Max. v. Pettenkofer "" 
Seizel, 51 .... 
J. G. Kolar, 11 . . 
R. E. Grant, 25 . 
Walt Whitman, 37 
Robert Cory, 62 . 
Edouard Seguin. 6 
Fr. Tiedemann , 17 
v. I,asaulx, 17 . . 
I,, v. Buhl, 17 . . 
J. F. Hausmann, 3 ' 

B. G. Ferris, 27 . 
F. J. Gall ,» . . 



OCCUPATION 

Writer and orator, 

Theologian, 

Ethnologist and explorer, . . 

Neurologist, 

Sovereign, 

Pathologist, 

Naturalist, 

Anatomist, 

Mathematician, 

Mathematician, 

Anthropologist, 

Geologist and ethnologist, . 

Physician, 

Jurist, 

Anthropologist, 

Anthropologist, 

Justice and editor, 

Journalist, ; 

General 

Physician, 

Astronomer, 

General, 

Geologist a'id poet, 

Embryologist 

Physiologist, 

Surgeon 

Physicist and pedagogue, . . 

Composer 

Diplomat and editor, .... 

Mathematician, ....... 

Philosopher and poet .... 

Morphologist 

Physician, 

Historian, 

Surgeon, 

Philosopher 

Mathematician and inventor, 

Journalist, . 

Anthropologist, 

Physiologist, 

Physician, . 

Philosopher, 

U. S. Vice-President, 

Anatomist, 

Statesman, 

litterateur, 

Anthropologist, 

Anatomist, 

Philologist, 

Chemist, 

Naturalist, 

Historian, 

Physician, 

Chemist, 

Sculptor, .... 

Dramatist, 

Astronomer, 

Poet, 

Physician, 

Psychiatrist, 

Anatomist, 

Philologist, 

Anatomist, 

Mineralogist, 

Turist 

I Anatomist and phrenologist. 



52 
6(3 
58 
73 
78 
71 
68 
63 
64 
55 
77 
76 
49 
39 
79 
55 
63 
79 
55 
73 
58 
76 
70 
35 
65 
61 
67 
53 
75 
61 
49 
79 
45 
62 
68 
50 
72 
61 
64 

65 
52 
76 
51 
70 
51 
71 
63 
82 
50 
84 
80 
72 
55 
68 
79 
57 
64 
77 



BRAIN- 
WEIGHT 

1503 
1503 

1503 
1502 
1500 
1499 
1495 
1495 
1494 
1492 
1490 
1488 
1488 
1485 
1484 
1480 
1471 
1468 
1457 
1452 
1452 
1449 
1445 
1440 
1440 
1437 
1422 
1420 
1418 
1416 
1415 
1415 
1415 
1410 
1410 
1409 
1403 
1403 
1398 
1395 
1390 
1389 
I3h9 
1380 
I3b0 
1374 
1373 
1370 
1358 
1352 
1352 
1349 
1332 
1320 
1312 
1300 
1290 
1282 
1276 
1257 
1254 
1250 
1229 
1226 
1225 
1198 



IO 



The average (arithmetical) brain-weight of the 
96 individuals is 1473 grams, exceeding the various 
averages given for the European brain by 75 to 125 
grams, and this without allowing for the advanced 
ag'e of this series ; the average of 92 being 63 years. 

A Detter appreciation of the greater average brain- 
weight of these notable persons can be formed from 





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Fig. 1. This chart shows the relatively greater number of 
heavier brains among the (96) "eminent men" (shaded;, as 
compared with the distribution of the ordinary brain-weights 
of the combined Bianhoff and Marchand series (in dotted out- 
line). Both the 800 ordinary and the 96 brain-weights of the 
eminent series are tabulated, for comparison, on the basis of 
100 cases. 

a glance at the chart (Fig. I.) showing the distribu- 
tion of "ordinary" and "eminent" brain-weights. It 
shows a relatively greater number of heavier brains 
among the noted individuals, and the chart in Fig. 
2 shows the same relation in another manner. 
It is further shown that the period of decrease with 



— II 



age is deferred for fully a decade among the more 
intellectual persons, a point already alluded to by 
Donaldson, and significant in connection with the 
longevity of healthy persons endowed with high in- 
telligence. 

So far as nationality goes, our 96 noted persons 
are nearly all Western Europeans and Americans. 
They are distributed as follows : 



Yrs.35 



Cms 

1550 






1 








9/ EmineJt Men 




1450 


/ 
/ 























Broca-Bisch, 


if- Boyd Sen 


es 
















/?■>(> 










'~'^ 



JblG. 2. Curves of average brain-weights per decade in the 
series of (91) "eminent" men whose age is recorded in Table I, 
compared with the Broca-Bischoff-Boyd series. The curves 
show that in the eminent series senile decrease occurs a decade 
later than in the "ordinary" series. 



Germany and Austria 

United States and Canada 

France 

British Islands 

Russia 

Sweden 

Italy 

Bulgaria 



38 

21 
17 
14 
2 
2 
1 
1 



The average brain-weights according to national- 
ity are : No. of Cases Average 

Brain-Weight. 
1518 gm. 
1473 gm. 
1443 gm. 
1440 gm. 

In proceeding to a further analysis it seems best 
to distribute these men of eminence among the three 



United States and Canada 
British Islands 
Germany and Austria 
France 



21 
14 
38 
17 



12 



categories of science, creative arts and action. In 
submitting these lists, the writer feels constrained to 
repudiate any intention of maintaining the classi- 
fication adopted to be one meeting all the requisites 
involved. The simple divison into representatives 
of science, creative arts and action is necessitated by 
the smallness of numbers; a proper rubrication 
would leave more than one important division re- 
presented by only one or two individuals. Aside 
from the failure of three groups to provide for the 
various branches of mental activity as manifested 
in various professions — here conventionally 
adopted — it were doubtful if mature reflection would 
endorse such classification. The latter is far from 
a. natural one, for it does not regard the intrinsic 
physiological relations of the professions, arts and 
sciences. For example, the sharp demarcation of 
art and science leaves music and mathematics 
abruptly and remotely separated ; yet, whatever 
justifiable presumption exists as to the relations of 
cortical fields would assign both to closely situated, 
nay, in almost identical areas, tracts, and neurons 
of such. Again, to place, for example, generals in 
one group, is to throw in a chaos of unrelated units, 
the mathematical genius, the geographical explorer, 
the expert physicist, with the strategic adventurer 
and opportune gambler of the battlefield chess- 
board. 

With these limitations, the following table expres- 
ses the results of such classifications in condensed 
form : 

TABLE II. 



Categories. 


No. 
of cases 


Average 
Age. 


Average 
Brain-W't. 


I, a. Ijxact Sciences 


12 
45 

[57] 
25 

14 


67.5 
63 3 
[61.2] 
59.0 

65.0 


1532.0 
1444.3 

[1463.0] 


IT. Pine Arts, Philosophy &c. . . 

III. Men of Action [Government, 
politics, military, &c] . . . 


1482.2 
1490.0 



— 13 — 

It is readily seen that the representatives of the 
exact sciences, such as the mathematicians and 
astronomers, possess the heaviest brains ; in the 
present series of 12, all have brain-weights of over 
1400 grams, except the very aged Grant. Next come 
those in the category of "Men of Action," i. e. states- 
men, politicians and military men. The "Creative 
Arts" come next, containing, among others, three 
opera composers (Levi, 1690; Lenz, 1636; Schubert. 
1420) with an average of 1582 gm.. The average of 
45 representatives of the natural sciences is the 
lowest of all, but still well above the average of 
ordinary brain-weights. In this category we find 
seven anthropologists and ethnologists, averaging 
63 years of age, with 1459.3 g m - '■> ^ en anatomists and 
surgeons of the same average with 1436.3 gm. ; 
while six morphologists and naturalists (Cuvier, 
Cope, Agassiz, J. Leidy, and v. Schlagintweit) aver- 
age 1 5 19 gm.* 

Of course, every rule has its exceptions, and, with 
this limitation, the inference that the intellectual 
status is in some way reflected in the mass and 
weight of the brain seems generally correct. But 
further than this our analysis shows that the brains 
of men devoted to the higher intellectual occupa- 
tions, such as the mathematical sciences, involving 
the most complex mechanisms of the mind, those of 
men who have devised original lines of research 
(Cuvier) and those of forceful characters, like Ben 
Butler or Daniel Webster, are generally heavier 
still. The results are fully in accord with biological 
results. 

1. Retzius, Biol. Untersuch., 1898—1902. Stockholm. 

2. Hansemann, Zeitschr. f. Psych, u. Physiol, d. Sinnesorgane 1899, 1. 

3. Guszman, Anat. Anz., XIX, 1901, 239. 

4. Duval, Bull. Soc. d'Anthrop., 1886. 

5. Rudinger, Anat. des Sprach centrums, 1882, p. 43. 

6. T$. A. Spitzka, Phila. Medical Journal, April 6. 1901. 

7. Nacke, P., Hubertusburg, Germany. 

8. Cappelli, Arch. ital. per le mal. nervos, 1887, 135. 

♦It is worth while to quote at this juncture the interesting 
results of Matiegka's inquiry into the relations of brain-weight 
and occupation (11). He distributed 235 cases among six groups, 
ascending as follows: Day-laborers, 1410 gm. ; steadily employed 
laborers, 1433.5 gm. ; porters 1435.7 gm.; mechanics, trades.work- 
ers, 1449.6 gm.; business-men, teachers, clerks, 14 68.5 gm. ; schol- 
ars, physicians, etc.. 1500 gm. 



— 14 — \ 

9. Richarz, in Wasilewski's "Life of Schumann", 1871. 

10. Rudinger, cit. in Jour. Ment. Sci., 1886 ; Med. Record, 1886. 

11. Matiegka, Sitzber. d. k. Bohm. Ges. d. Wiss., 1902. 

12. Boileau, lancet, 1882, II, 485. 

13. Bastian, Brain as an Organ of Mind, 1880, p. 392. 

14. Flint, Physiology. 

15. B. G. Wilder, Cornell University, Ithaca. 

16. Los Angeles Times, Dec. 26, 1899. 

17. Bischoff, ,,Das Hirngewicht des Menschen", 1880. 

18. Proces verbal, etc., par Brouardel, et al, 1883 [Paris]. 

19. Berard, Gazette Medicale, May 19, 1832. 

20. London Med. Gaz., 1828, p. 478. 

21. Jeffries Wyman, Am. Jour. Med. Sci., 1853, p. 110. 

22. Phrenological Journal, IX, p. 566. 

23. Prof. Bollinger, Munich, Germany, 

24. D. S. Lamb, Washington, D. C. ' 

25. Marshall, Jour. Anat. and Physiol., XXVII, p. 30, 18)2. 

26. Bost. Med. and Surg. Jour., 1883. p. 184. 

27. Prof. Wiedersheim, Freiburg University, Germany. 

28. Goodsir, et al, Edinb. Med. Jour., 1845, p. 231. 

29. Med. Record, 1893, p. 186. 

30. Prof. W. J. Herdman, Univ. of Mich. 

31. Daffner, ' Das Wachsthum des Menschen", 1902, p. 275. 

32. London Times, Dec. 25, 1863, cit. by Marshall 25 . 

33. Chiene and Stierling, Goodsir's Anat. Mem., 1868, 1, p. 195. 

34. Boston Med. and Surg. Jour., 1854, p. 512. 

35. "The Lost Atlantis and other Ethnographic Studies", 1892, p. 376. 

36. O. Amtnon, "Die natiirl. Auslese b. Menschen", 1893. 

37. In Collection of American Anthropometric Society, Philadelphia, Pa. 

38. Lancet, 1870, i; p. 717. 

39. Wagner, Vorstudien, 1860—1862. 

40. Thurnam, Jour. Ment. Sci., 1866. 

41. Acton, Lancet, 1861, II, p. 193. 

42. Bennett, Edinb. Mo. Med. Jour., 1851, p. 205. 

43. Wyman, Med. and Surg. Rep. [Phila.], 1874, p. 131. 

44. Sperino Gior. d. R. A. di Med. di Torino, 1900, No. 8. 

45. Jour. Ment. Pathol., 1902, p. 269. 

. 46. Kuhff, cit. by Topinard, "Anthropologic", p. 553. 

47. Dr. Georges Herve, Paris. 

48. Miller and Christison, cit. by Calderwood, "Relations of Mind and 

Brain", 1884, p. 23. 

49. Duval, Chudzinski and Herve, Bull. Soc. d'Anthropol., 1880 and 1883. 

50. Neiding, Bull. Soc. d'Anthropol., 1882. 

51. Manouvrier, "La Quantity dans l'Encephale", 1895. 

52. Orvisi Hetilap, 1902, p. 8. 

53. Broussais. et al, Gaz. des Hdpitaux, 1835, p. 78. 

54. Autopsy by Keyes, Chetwood, Janeway, et al, N. Y. World, May 18, 

1889. 

55. Duval, et al, Bull. Soc. d'Anthropol., 1883. 

56. Chudzinski and Manouvrier, Bull. Soc. d'Anthropol., 1887. 

57. Prof. Ewald, Strassburg Univ. 

58. Laborde, Duval, et al, Bull. Soc. d'Anthropol., 1883. 

59. Humphrey, Lancet, 1866. I, p. 279. 

60. M. Sugar, Orvosi Hetilap, 1902, p. 8. 

61. Cadge, Brit. Med. Jour., 1875, 454. 

62. St. Thomas Hosp. Autops. Rec, 1900. 

63. Watjoff, Arch. f. Anthropol. XXVI, p. 1080. 



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